Re: beyerguy (729 Views)
Posted by:
P.Eckhart (IP Logged)
Date: October 08, 2003 10:03PM
Prior apologies if you've heard this before, but my memory isn't what it used to be. The season before last, the clocker at Raceform, who are the publishers of the official form book (UK), ran some software over their database. The upshot (which subsequently caused a bloodbath in the letters pages of their weekly newspaper) was that the data was to them so convincing that they decided to move to 'weight free' timefigures (I say timefigures to make the distinction from performance figures). I'm certain they did not do it lightly because anyone with half a brain could've predicted the verbal abuse (and lost subscriptions) they would take.
Not now, but in the past, like a lot of people I have made my own numbers. What always troubled me (which I swept under the carpet) were amateur rider handicap races. There must be about 60 of them each season and the weights range from 9-7 up to 12-0.
Some of them turn out to be just too quick that either you have to conveniently ignore they were part of the card or you come to the conclusion that there are instances where weight just isn't impacting as conventional wisdom would tell us.